Such devices have been widely used for quite some time, in particular, as cardiac pacemakers or implantable cardioverters (specifically defibrillators). However, they can also involve a less complex device, such as an electrode lead or sensor line or a cochlear implant.
The majority of implantable electromedical devices that are significant in practice are intended to deliver electric pulses to excitable body tissue via suitably positioned electrodes. So as to carry out this function, electronic/electric functional units are accommodated in the housing of the device for generating the pulses and for suitably controlling the pulse generation, and electrodes or connections for at least one electrode lead are provided directly on the outside of the device, in the distal end section of which the electrodes for transmitting the pulse to the tissue are accommodated. The electronic/electric functional units in the housing interior are to be connected to the outer electrodes or electrode line connections in a way that, under special conditions of the implanted state, ensures absolutely and permanently reliable function.
In particular, feedthroughs are known, the base and insulating body of which are essentially made of ceramic material or glass, wherein multi-layer or multi-piece designs using metals or metal oxides have also been developed and are used. Such known feedthroughs largely meet the demands placed on them.
However, the known feedthrough designs are relatively labor intensive and, thus, costly to produce. In particular, multiple work and process steps are required, complex joining of multiple individual components is necessary, as is pretreatment of the same in some instances (such as, for example, cleaning, surface pretreatment, creation of the solderability, etc.), and the processes must therefore also comprise multiple test steps.
A method for producing a feedthrough of a device is known from German Patent Publication No. DE 10 2009 003 958 B4, in which a metallic conductor is provided with an insulating casing (specifically made of an oxide of the conductor) and a flange is shrunk onto this insulated conductor by way of powdered metal injection molding, followed by cooling. It is also known from European Patent Publication No. EP 1 820 534 A2 to generate a surrounding flange around a feedthrough that otherwise is preassembled from multiple parts, using the powdered metal injection molding process. It is also known from United States Publication No. 2008/0209723 to shrink a ceramic component during the processing stage of the so-called brown body or green body onto a metallic conductive pin.
It is known from United States Publication No. 2012/0319319 to generate feedthroughs for hermetically sealed device housings by forming both an insulative body and a conductor passing through the same by way of a powder injection molding process.
The present invention is directed toward overcoming one or more of the above-mentioned problems.